Features

Anatomy of a Plan: Better Practices for Management Accountants
Jeffrey C. Thomson
Planning, budgeting, and forecasting are the “heart and soul” and “lifeblood” of management accounting. They’re also some of the most strategic activities management accountants perform. Can you think of “better” practices associated with them?

Creating a Best-in-Class KPI Program
Jani Kaskinen
One way to achieve continuous financial improvement is to establish a program of key performance indicators (KPIs) that lets you measure current performance against goals and benchmarks to understand your organization’s strengths and where it’s falling short. Here the author shows how to set up such a program for purchase-to-pay.

Will RFID Change Inventory Assumptions?
Ross L. Fink, John W. Gillett, and Gabe Grzeskiewicz
Although only 10% of businesses are using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track goods throughout the supply chain, this number is expected to grow to around 40% by 2010. What’s going to happen to management accountants’ work when this happens?

Quality of “Work Life”
Brian Ballou, CPA, and Norman H. Godwin, CPA
Companies of all sizes are instituting a variety of benefits—from child- and elder-care resources and referral to $4 on-site haircuts—to keep employees happy and improve the quality of their work life. So far, these investments seem to be paying off in better employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and added value.

Want More Effective and Efficient Data Analysis? Use Access!
Janet A. Samuels, CPA, and Robert E. Wood
Accountants often need to analyze data from various files or sources in an organization, but existing information systems may not be designed to facilitate this analysis. Rather than manually combining files or using Excel, importing the data into Access for analysis can be the best way to get the job done.

What Accounting Skills Do Managers Value?
James W. Damitio, CMA, and Raymond S. Schmidgall, CPA
Accountants often need to analyze data from various files or sources in an organization, but existing information systems may not be designed to facilitate this analysis. Rather than manually combining files or using Excel, importing the data into Access for analysis can be the best way to get the job done.

Columns

PERSPECTIVES
Our future.

TOP LINE
A time for change.

TAXES
Proposed legislation for publicly traded partnerships, Part 1.

ETHICS
Does terror-free investing help stop terrorism?

EXCEL
Custom sorting in Excel.

XBRL
The data warehousing disconnect.

Departments

STREETWISE
COSO releases internal control discussion document
More accountants are audit committee chairs
New rules on foreign investments in U.S. go into effect
Books: Managing the supply chain
XBRL-US market outreach working group.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

TECH FORUM
Gadgets—an essay.

END NOTE
Ben meets the 21st century: Securing the C-note